1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft structures and, in particular, to manufacturing aircraft structures. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for manufacturing aircraft structures using a crawler robot and a supporting platform.
2. Background
Various parts may be manufactured and assembled to form different aircraft structures for an aircraft. For example, without limitation, ribs, stringers, and spars may be assembled together to form a wing structure for a wing of an aircraft. Skin panels may then be placed over the wing structure and secured to the structure to form the wing. Assembly of an aircraft structure may include, for example, without limitation, drilling one or more holes through multiple parts and installing fasteners through these holes to secure the parts to each other.
Some currently available methods for drilling holes in the final assembly of an aircraft structure may be manual and require human operators, such as aircraft mechanics. In some cases, these aircraft mechanics may need to be positioned in difficult to access areas around or in the structure to perform drilling using handheld power tools. This type of process may be more tedious, exacting, and time consuming than desired.
Other currently available methods may use automated drilling systems for performing drilling operations. However, some of these automated drilling systems may be larger in size and heavier than desired. The larger size of these automated drilling systems may make the movement of aircraft mechanics within and around the area in which these systems are located more difficult than desired, especially while the automated drilling systems are in use. Consequently, these aircraft mechanics may be unable to perform other tasks or operations until the drilling operations have been completed for a particular area. These delays may increase the overall time required for assembly of an aircraft structure more than desired. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.